Hello, I read your post and use to buy & sell Party Lite candles. I stopped using them when I found out that Party Light candles are not all made here in the USA which we did not like since we had no knowledge of the quality of the materials used in making their candles. We agree, Party Lite had a nice scent throw but the soot is far too much for our liking. We couldnt help wonder what it was doing to our lungs. So to find a healthier alternitive to burning candles, Many years ago, I became interested in making my own candles. I have sold them in my own retail locations for years. I have made all sort of candles using many types of waxes. Overall (next to beeswax) we prefer soy wax. There is no dispute that soy wax is a much cleaner wax to burn. We have had great results from our soy candles and our customers come back for more. We found that measuring our fragrances by weight, not by volume gave us a better scent throw. We also found that buying a higher quality of fragrance oil also worked well for us. At times, depending on the fragrance, we have used 1.5 ounces (by weight) of fragrance oil per pound of wax. Keep in mind, wax is like a sponge and can only hold so much fragrance oil. Too much oil and you can get the opposit effect and have a poor scent throw. It is important to mix the fragrance oils very well to make sure they bind to the wax. Without aggitating, we mix ours for about two minutes. Hope this is helpful. Debbie

Hi Terri, Thanks for the reply. I am living in NE Mississippi. Born and raised in N.H. I have a candle Kit coming as I was not sure How to start. Wax I like soy, jars kinda traditional Def. Think Yankee.(being that I am one at heart still) I have found a soy from Wal Mart that stays fragent to the end but they are so hard to find.This is why I wanted to start making my own. I am retired and have plenty of time to spend on them. Have always been a crafty person but have never done candles. I am really tired of buying candles and no smell!!!

I am happy this was brought back up because I did not see Blue Velvet Elvis' post until now and it is really very true, that the best houses one can visit, are neither impeccably or immaculately furnished or clean, but clean and furnished comfortably and the homeowner does not seem to worry about someone breaking something, the homeowner is more than willing to have children visit and enjoys them. I wanted to share this story since it seems relevant to the conversation and the time of year. When our #2 was in graduate school, he came home at Christmas, per schedule, looked in the family room and found a "new Christmas tree" there. It was not the usual tree we had with the homemade ornaments, the collected ornaments, ornaments from my mother and grandmother, but a real "florist looking" tree complete with birds, bird nests, berries, moss and beautiful flowers from the wild on each bough. He instantaneously asked me what was I doing and what was I thinking, that this is not home, stating he did not care to come to this place where a florist tree sat in what used to be our family room, he wanted "our tree" back. He wanted a real tree with the smell of Christmas, all the ornaments from 60 years, to see what he did, what my grandmother had. He was furious and told me this was the coldest our family room had ever looked. I was so very hurt because I had spent a whole spring, summer and fall ordering, buying and gathering the decor for the tree. I was so hurt it brought tears to my eyes and I had to get into the car and drive around for a while. When I returned, my DH and I put that tree in the formal living room and went out, bought a "real tree" and put our kids' decorations on it. Our #2 son said, "I feel like I am home now. I didn't feel that way when I walked in and saw that faux tree and faux ornaments that have nothing to do with our family. Of course, #3 son was in agreement with him even before the "bird and bough" tree went up. For several years I had done more than one tree and some years, do as many as 5, but it made me realize what a mistake I had made in trying to please lesser people when the important people in my life were my family. Just last year, #3 son came in and said to his wife (whose mother has florist decorate her whole house), "No matter what we spend on decorating at Christmas, it just does not seem like Christmas until I get to mother's and see her tree. She takes every lemon in the house, throws it together and makes lemonade." So in our quest to get the "decorator look," are we forgetting the most important visitors, our own family, who want comfort, who want a collected look and who want familiarity? No doubt in a few more years, all these ornaments, even the newer ones will belong to my children and I hope my grandchildren on their trips home from college can remark on how their mothers have decorated for Christmas, how they love it and it reminds them of a time when they went to their grandmother's home for Christmas, a time when their greatest expectation was what the packages contained and their most awful worry was whether or not they would be forced to eat the broccoli.

I think the interior is well on the way to transitional. The kitchen cupboards are the most modern thing I see and the doors could possibly be switched out to something more your style. Otherwise, "transitional" is largely a matter of decor and fabric choices. For the exterior, it's a shame that it's not what you love, because it's gorgeous!